I got the following response via email from my caoch after yesterday’s post. I think it is relevant for more people to consider so I am sharing it:
Chris:
First of all, congratulations as you still had a successful day and it sounds like you may have found your answer to the knee issue. Secondly, there is no such thing as “FAILURE” in these situations only lessons learned for success on your next race. Given the realm of athleticism that you are venturing into with ultra-distance running, you should view every race, no matter what the outcome as success, since it will teach you something for the next race. These races, as you know are very long and the longer the race the more chances for the body to break down. So any lessons learned will help improve the success rate for future events. A success rate that I would venture to guess is not as high as any old 10k you may enter.
In addition, within these races you will have success and failures and it will be necessary over the course of time to understand your body, like you did in this last race, to know when a failure means to call it a day and when a failure means “a bad patch” and just keep going as your body will work though it.
I guess the short of it is that success is relative in these types of events since they are very grueling and punishing on the body no matter what your conditioning. Log your race, start the preparation for your next race, and review your log of this race prior to the next one and your lessons learned will come full circle. You will have success in your next race.
-John
